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Billions of consumers reside at the
bottom of the economic pyramid across the world. Marketers
need to tap this lucrative market with the right mix of
products and prices in order to get the much needed
competitive advantage in this fiercely competitive business
environment.
For long, marketers across the world have been ignoring
consumers lying at the bottom of the economic pyramid. They
focused mainly on customers in developed countries, and at
the most, the top and upper middle-class consumers from the
developing countries. Now, since the developed markets have
become saturated, companies are left with no choice but to
move towards those consumers in the untapped segment.
Moreover, the onus is on marketers to target those consumers
lying at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP). |
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Experts and industry analysts from all parts of the world are predicting
that this BOP is going to be the next big thing, i.e., it serves as a huge
lucrative market. Hence, companies need to have a keen look at this gigantic
market to stay ahead in the competition.
Till now, marketers have neglected the BOP consumers across the globe, under
the illusion that they do not have the spending power and are highly
cost-conscious. In the year 2004, CK Prahalad (Prahalad), the world foremost
management guru and strategy expert, along with his fellow professor Stuart
L Hart, through their book Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, enlightened
the marketers about the importance of BOP consumers in this globalized
world. They argued that companies have missed out on the opportunity to
benefit from the BOP market.
All this led to a sudden drastic change in the way companies used to market
their products to the consumers in the BOP market. It seems they have learnt
the lessons for not having identified the potential of these markets and
serving them earlier. Several companies across the world, ranging from
various segments and industries are vying to reach and serve these
consumers. The change is mostly visible in industries like consumer
electronics and telecommunications.
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